The Chips are Down: A Lesson in Branding

by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

Faux Sure!

You already know that Pringles aren’t really potato chips. One bite told you that. You just ate ‘em because they make good midnight munchies. And they come in that cool tube.

But the blogosphere buzzed when parent company Proctor & Gamble publicly proclaimed that Pringles aren’t entirely made from potatoes…

In an attempt to save on British snack taxes, P&G declared that 58% of each Pringles chip consists of wheat and corn flour, fat, seasonings and something called “emulsifiers.” Unfortunately for P&G, not only did this confession fail to cut their taxes, it also undermined their Pringle brand worldwide. Notes Advertising Age (subscription required to read):

“The theory that all a company’s employees — not just its marketing department — help create the brand came into sharp focus last week, when an obscure tax ruling in the U.K. centered around the contention of Procter & Gamble Co. lawyers and finance people that Pringles aren’t potato crisps (chips, in U.S. parlance) made the brand the butt of jokes around the globe.”

P&G’s lawyers and finance people were thinking strictly in terms of dollars (or, in this case, pounds — rather appropriate for junk food, no?), and not in terms of the much more valuable overall brand. And that’s because they don’t understand what “brand” means.

They’re not alone. I’ve met so-called “VP’s of Marketing” who didn’t understand branding, and I’ve yet to find two textbooks or experts who agree on the definition. So as another Cool Rules Pronto public service, here’s a handy definition of “brand” that anyone should be able to grasp — even a lawyer:

A brand is your image, personality and reputation
rolled into one impression.

All entities have a brand: a company, school, non-profit organization, government department, sports team, religion, rock band, politician, even you.

Indeed, one of the best ways to understand branding is to make it personal. You control parts of your brand: your style, attitude, educational background and credentials. Other factors are often beyond control: rumors about you, how others judge you based on your ethnicity or nationality, or even the misbehavior of your friends and associates.

Look, It Rubs Off!

Yes, you can build or damage your brand by association. You might  purchase certain products because you admire them, identify with them, and want them to reflect on you. Top colleges sell a lot of T-shirts that way.

The converse is also true: After Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was accused of crimes, many people (including his golfing buddy George Bush) stopped associating with him. Loyalty is only brand deep.

One company might have many faces to its brand.

The brand you show professionally might differ from what you show your family and what you show your friends. For example, Wal-Mart is friendly to customers, hard on suppliers, and (according to various lawsuits) unfair to some workers. Different people might regard a brand differently: some love Wal-Mart and others think it’s evil; some admire Sarah Palin while most think she’s an idiot; your mother will likely treat you differently than your boss will, and your pets will always think you’re the greatest thing in the world.

Managing their company’s brand is the marketer’s most important responsibility, because even their CEO can stray. The CEO of Merrill Lynch was forced to resign after he spent $1.2 million to redecorate his office when financial institutions were begging for federal bailouts. His VP of Marketing should have said something to him long before that happened.

As Pringles demonstrates, everyone from the executive suite to the guys in the warehouse can affect a brand, so it’s important that they all understand it and protect it. Managing a brand requires both a global and local perspective, and almost 24/7 vigilance, but it’s worth the effort…

What is the value of a brand?

• A strong brand enables you to charge higher prices than a similar competitive product.
• It enables you to attract the best customers and the best workers, and to retain their loyalty.
• It creates recognition and trust in a competitive and confusing marketplace.
• It makes investors more enthusiastic about you, and makes your stock worth more than a similar company with a weak brand.
• It makes the news media more eager to report on you.
• And it makes some consumers even willing to wear your logo on their clothes, their cars, even their skin.

The Pringles brand is strong enough to withstand this little dent, but a few more shakeups, and these faux crisps could easily crumble.

Update 8/10/9: In a gross misinterpretation of branding, a startup called Buildabrand is offering to create a “brand” for you for the price of a domain… Except their definition of “brand” is a logo and visual themes as generated by a computer. Sorry, kids, that’s like saying your personal “reputation” is the clothing you wear, and letting some computer dress you. Thanks to Buildabrand, even more startups will be clueless about branding and its true value, while talented and savvy graphic designers will lose business. Indeed, by misleading people about the definition of “brand,” Buildabrand is hurting business in general.

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Shameless plug: Need professional help building and enhancing your brand? Contact Atomic Tango…